A GRISLY account of torture in Taleban prisons was given yesterday by four recently freed German aid workers held hostage for 101 days.

Cruel games with a gun, maggoty food and regular parades of the women before their guards were part of life behind bars for the captives.

The women prisoners were a source of fascination for the jailers and their commanders. Every evening members of the Taleban Foreign Ministry, accompanied by a clutch of bearded strangers, would visit the cells and demand that the women stand by the bars. Wordlessly, they would stare at the women from head to toe. The prisoners ‚ÄĒ who were never touched or abused ‚ÄĒ called the session ‚Äúzoo time‚ÄĚ.

The youngest of the German prisoners, Kati Jellinek, 29, was blonde and of particular interest to the Taleban. When she was arrested, five men with Kalashnikovs demanded that she pack, unpack and repack her underwear.
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